Women's Fitness: Target Your Hips

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

28 May 2007 08:32 AM

The sad part about being a woman is that we carry most of our excess weight on our hips, tummy, thighs and bottom end. Many people think that those are the hardest areas to lose weight off of, but the truth is - anywhere you want to trim excess inches is usually the hardest area. There's an old saying that the first place you gain weight is the last place you lose it.

But today, let's talk about our hips and trimming excess inches off of them. There are plenty of specific area exercises that you can do to target your hips. Leg abductors and adductors are just two examples of this type of area specific exercises. But it's important to recognize that just trying to target specific trouble areas is not going to accomplish your goals. You need to look at the big picture as well as the pixels in the frame.

Trimming Your Hips

If you really want to trim excess fat from a specific area of your body whether it's your hips, your arms, your waist, your thighs or your pinky, you need to do the following:

• Take a long hard look at your nutrition - if you eat excess calories constantly, you're going to have to work twice as hard. You need to look at what you are eating and how often you are eating it. Lowering your calorie intake is a first step towards helping to burning excess fat
• Ramp up your cardio program. A few years ago, a personal trainer gave me the best piece of advice I've ever received and I've never stopped listening to it. If burning fat is what you want to do, cardio, cardio, cardio and did I mention cardio? You want to be doing a minimum of 30 minutes a day, five days a week - if you can ramp yourself up to 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week, you're going to start burning fat all over your body, you may not see results immediately, but within a couple of weeks, you'll notice the smaller fatty areas are going to be leaner - for example, the backs of your arms, bra fat and more will begin to lighten - so employ the cardio and keep it up
• Weight training - yes we've mentioned strength training many times in the past and strength training is important. When you build muscle, you are revving up your metabolism and increasing the number of calories you burn. You need to strength train at least twice a week and go for about 20 minutes, non-stop per session. That time can count towards cardio if you can keep your heart rate up at the same time. Don't worry that strength training is going to make you super bulky, most women have lean muscle mass and 20 minutes twice a week is going to improve your overall look and not just the areas you are targeted
• Include targeted areas in your strength training - for example, performing leg abductors and adductors specifically target your hips as well as the outer and inner thigh - this increases the strength of the muscles in this area which can help you burn the excess fat in that area

Be sure to check with your physician if you have any concerns about building up to this type of exercise program. This is considered a moderate level of activity, but if you are going from sedentary to moderate, it can be a bit of a push.

How often do you perform cardio every week?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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